Turon Saba AKA. Filipino Pancakes

While in the Philippines last fall I had quite a variety of banana dishes - and they were all amazing. I found a similar recipe online to one of the dishes called Turon Saba. Tasty- but not quite as tasty as the originals. Too bad I don't have a banana tree growing in the backyard with fresh bananas of all sorts.

Recipe:

pancakes:

3 eggs
2/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Brown sugar and frying oil

Cardava Bananas

Beat the egg whites first. Add in the yolk, the flour, cornstarch and salt. The dough should have a nice gooey and sticky texture. Heat up a pan, no grease. The pan should be warm enough that you can quickly touch the pan without burning your finger. Take the gooey dough ball in your hand and spread over the pan, scrape off excess dough with spatula so you have a nice thin pancake. After about 10-15 seconds its done; no need to turn it over. Slice the bananas and coat them in brown sugar. Heat up a skillet with half an inch oil and add 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Wrap sugar coated bananas in the pancake and seal with water. Place in frying pan on both sides until dark golden brown.

American Cookies

I made these cookies a while back and they are seriously the best cookies I have ever had. Chewy, crunchy and lots of chocolate.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (I used kosher salt)
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, grated
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
sea salt
 

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside. Mix cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mix well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Stir all chocolate into dough. Cover dough and refrigerate for 12 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours. Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.

Danish Style Strawberry Pies

Yes, I am still baking like a maniac. Although these delicious strawberry pies are typically a summer dessert I decided to give my first attempt yesterday. Maybe it was the sudden switch to 15 °C and sunshine. Kansas weather is like a roller coaster :-)

Vanilla Cream:

1/2 L cream
100 g white chocolate
35 g sugar
1 vanilla bean

Dough:

300 g flour
150 g salted butter at room temperature
100 g powdered sugar
1 egg

Mazarin:

125 g Marcipan at room temperature
75 g sugar
50 g salted butter at room temperature
1 egg

Kransekage:

75 g sugar
45 g eggwhites
200 g Marcipan at room temperature

Fresh Strawberries

Directions

Vanilla cream: Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Mix the seeds with some of the sugar to separate them. Heat up the cream with the empty vanilla bean. Add vanilla seeds sugar and chocolate. Once everything is melted together, place it in cold container in the refrigerator until completely cooled down.

Dough: Mix all ingredients and let rest in refrigerator for half an hour. Roll dough out and cut circles of about 8cm and place in the muffin forms. Press the edges up along the side so it form a cup in the form.

Mazarin: Mix all ingredients until an even texture is achieved. Divide out the mixture in the dough cups and bake at 180°C / 350 F for approximately 10 min. Cool down.

Kransekage: Mix sugar and egg whites. Let the sugar dissolve for about half an hour. Add marcipan little by little and mix well. Place mixture in a decorating bag with a large star tip. Squeeze the mixture out creating an edge circle on the dough cups and bake again at 190°C / 360F for 6-8 minutes. Cool down. Whip the vanilla cream and place in the center. Decorate with sliced strawberries. Serve cold on the same day. Makes 10-12 mini pies.

Blueberry Dream

While in China I was deprived of baking sweets. Now I'm back and I have an oven that has been going almost nonstop since I've been back. This rich creamy cake is one of my favorites yet.

Blueberry jam :

1/2 vanilla bean
100 g sugar
juice from half a lemon
200 g blueberries

Blåbærsylt:
1/2 vaniljastang
100 g sukker
Saft fra 1/2 citron 
200 blåbær

White Cream :

2 sheets of gelatine
1/2 l heavy cream
150 g white chocolate
All the blueberry jam

Hvid Creme :
2 bl husblas
1/2 L piskefløde
150 hvid chokolade
Al blåbærsylten

Chocolate bun :

175 g butter
1 dl water
1/2 vanilla bean
300 g sugar
200 g flour
4 large eggs
75 g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder

Chokoladebund:
175 g smør
1 dl vand
1/2 vaniljestang
300 g sukker
200 g hvedemel
4  æg
75 g kakao
1 tsk bagepulver

Directions :

Blueberry jam: Split the vanilla bean and scrape all the vanilla out with a knife. Mix with a table spoon sugar to separate the seeds. Place the vanilla sugar, the vanilla bean, sugar, lemon juice and blueberries in a pot and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and cool mixture down in the fridge for at least 2 hours

White Cream: Place the gelatine in cold water for 30 minutes. Heat the cream in a saucepan with the white chocolate until it all has melted together. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the cold gelatine sheets. Stir the cream mixture and place in the refrigerator in Tupperware for at least 3 hours.

Whip the cold cream and add the blueberry jam.


Chocolate bun: Melt butter and water in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the vanilla seeds with a knife. Mix with a tablespoon of sugar to separate the seeds. Whip the vanilla sugar, sugar and eggs until it becomes a thick texture. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into the thick "eggs schnaps". Mix carefully. Add the heated butter water mixture. Grease up a springform and pour the mixture into it.  Bake at 175 C for 35-40 minutes.

Once the cake has cooled down, the blueberry cream can be added on top of the cake in a decorative arrangement.

Danish Almond Layer Cake

 This layer cake is made of all my favorite things and it tastes like heaven. I made it the other day when visiting my grandmother and thought I would share one of her wonderful recipes.


Nutty Buns

4 eggs
175 g sugar
1 t vanilla sugar
100 g almond flour
60 g flour
100 g butter
1 t baking powder
1 T lemon zest
50 g of chopped almonds
50 g marzipan

Whip eggs and sugar fluffy. Add almond flour, grated marzipan and lemon zest. Melt the butter and add it to the eggs. Add flour and baking powder. Divide between 2 cake forms. bake at 200C for 7-10 min. Or until light golden.
Filling

Chocolate cream filling
20 g of chocolate
1 cup of cream

Melt the chocolate and the cream in a pot. Let it cool down completely before you whip it.

Raspberry cream filling
1/2 cup of Raspberries
1 cup of cream

Whip the cream. Mash the raspberries with a fork and add to the whipped cream.

One layer of each filling between the almond buns is my favorite!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I saw these yummy cinnamon roll inspired pancakes on pinterest and just had to make them! Plus it's Sunday, so very suitable :-)


Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Recipe adapted from: life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com  (which has a ton of great recipes btw)

For Pancakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten


Cinnamon Filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon


Prepare Cinnamon Filling first: In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. (You want this to rest and 'set up' while your preparing the other ingredients. Its best if it gets a little thicker, you dont want it liquidy)

Prepare Pancake batter:  In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg just until batter is moistened. 

French Macaroons, yes please..

Since last summer, where Jeremy and I traveled around in Europe, I've been craving these french delicacies. They are quite time consuming but so worth it when you get to enjoy the treats after your hard work. I made 5 flavors of macaroons; vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, strawberry and blueberry using the real deal for flavor and a little food color for appearance.

I started out by making the basic recipe and divided it up into five bowls where I added the different flavors and colors.

Basic Macaroon Recipe

300 g of almond flour
480 g powdered sugar
200 g egg whites (about 6)

Mix the almond flour and the sugar. Beat the egg white until they form stiff peaks. Add the egg whites to the almond mixture and beat all air out the mixture.

After dividing the portion into 5...

Macaroon Variations

Vanilla macaroon - add 1-2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar. No food coloring.
Chocolate macaroon - add 1 tablespoon dutch process cocoa. No food coloring.
Pistachio macaroon - add 1 dl of ground pistachio nuts. Add a little green food coloring.
Strawberry macaroon - add 2-3 strawberries (pureed in a blender) also add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little red food coloring.
Blueberry macaroon - add 2-3 tablespoon of pureed blueberry. Also, add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little blue food coloring.

Set the oven to 140 C or 275 F.

Add the mixtures to different decorating bags with a decent size tip. Make very small macaroons on the parchment paper with good spacing- they will get larger. Then let the macaroons "dry" for about 20 minutes before you put them in the oven. This is very important ( I messed up on this on the first round), they crack, they don't raise and they just don't look very good. Then place the macaroons in the oven for 10-12 minutes depending on how large they are.

Macaroon filling

2 egg whites
1 dl sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1 dl of soft butter (unsalted)

Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and whisk on high speed until mixture is cool and stiff peaks form, about 6 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Beat the butter and add to the meringue mixture. 

Filling variations

Vanilla - as is. ( I added a little more vanilla though  :-)
Chocolate - add 1 Tablespoon Dutch Process cocoa
Pistachio - add 2-3 Tablespoon fine chopped pistachio nuts
Strawberry - add 2 Tablespoon strawberry puree
Blueberry - add 2 Tablespoon blueberry puree

Mix and match the macaroons and fillings for fun variations. Happy macaroonie day!

Pesto Farfalle with Andouille Sausage

Made this easy but yummy pasta recipe the other day and thought I would share.

Recipe:

3/4 pound of pasta
12 oz of frozen peas
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound Andouille sausage

Pesto:
1 Handful basil
1 Handful arugula 
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoon of pasta water
2 Tablespoon pine nuts
1 garlic clove
Tiny squeeze of lemon
Salt and Pepper

Cook the the pasta, adding the frozen peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Meanwhile, cut the Andouille sausage into thin slices and heat in skillet. Mix all the ingredients for the pesto in a food processor until its creamy. Cool the pasta and the peas and add the meat and the pesto. Enjoy!

Opskrift:

750 g Pasta
350 frosne aerter
1 Spsk. Oliven Olie
500 g Andoiulle polse

Pesto:
1 handfuld basilikum
1 handfuld rucola
2 Spsk. Oliven olie
2 Spsk. pasta vand
2 Spsk. pinje kerner
1 fed hvidlog
1 lille tsk. citron
Salt og peber

Kog pastaen og tilsaet de frosne aerter 3 min. inden pastaen er faerdig. Imens, skaer Andouille poelsen i tynde skiver og steg paa panden. Bland alle ingredienser til pestoen i en food processor. Koel pastaen og tilsaet Andouille poelserne og pestoen.

Crabcakes

  

Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner. We made these delicious crabcakes, roasted potatoes and vegetables.

 Crabcake Recipe

2 Cans of crabmeat

1 Egg

1 Cup of chopped cilantro

Chopped green onions

2 Tablespoon flour

2 Tablespoon breadcrumbs

1 Teaspoon chili powder

1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 Teaspoon salt

Krabbekager Opskrift

2 Daser krabbe kod

1 aeg

1 handfuld cilantro

Finthakket forarslog

2 Spsk. mel

2 Spsk. rasp

1 Tsk. Chili

1 Tsk. Cayenne peber

1 Tsk. salt

Mix all ingredients well then form little cakes. Fry on a pan with generous oil.

 

 

Summer Dips

These past few weeks I've been trying out different summer dips and these are my favorites.

Roasted Eggplant and Basil Dip

Recipe

1 Eggplant

1/2 Red Onion

1/2 Cup of fresh chopped basil

2 Tablespoon olive oil

1 Teaspoon red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Squeeze of lemon

Heat oven to 400 F (200C). Place eggplant cut side down on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until soft. 30-40 minutes. Let cool.

Scoop out the flesh from the eggplant and roughly chop. Mix with ingredients. Serve with Chips or bread.

Grillet Auberginer og Basilikum dip

Opskrift

1 Aubergine

1/2 Rødt løg

1 Håndfuld basilikum

2 Spsk. oliven olie

1 Tsk. rødvins eddike

Salt og peber
Citron

Spinach and White Bean Dip (center)

Recipe

1/4 cup Olive oil

1 Garlic clove

1 Can of white Cannellini beans

2 1/2 Cups of spinach

1/4 Cup Fresh dill sprigs

1 Tablespoon of fresh lemon

Salt and pepper

In a small saucepan, heat the oil with garlic until fragrant. 2-3 minutes. Let cool. In food processor , puree the garlic oil, beans, spinach, dill, lemon juice, salt and pepper until smooth. Serve with Crostini.

Spinat og Hvid Bønne Dip

Opskrift

1 dl oliven olie
1 fed hvidløg
1 Dåse hvide bønner
2 håndfulde spinat
Frisk dild
1 Spsk. citron
Salt og peber

Tomatillo and Avocado Dip (front)

Recipe

4 Medium tomatillos

1 Avocado

1 Jalapeño

1/2 Cup fresh cilantro

1/4 white onion, chopped

2 Tablespoon of fresh lime juice
Salt and Pepper

In a food processor, pulse the tomatillos ( I just used tomatoes, which tastes good too), Jalapeño, avocado ,cilantro, onion, lime juice, salt and pepper until the mixture is the texture of relish. Serve with tortilla chips.


Tomatillo og Avocado Dip

Opskrift

4 Mellem Tomatillos (grønne tomater)
1 Avocado
1 Jalapeño
1 lille hånfuld cilantro
1/4 hvidt løg
2 Spsk. lime juice
Salt og Peber

Greek Dinner

Hosting dinner parties and cooking with exotic themes is one of my favorite things. Last night we had Greek night with pitas, hummus, falafel and tzaziki. It was delicious but took about 3 hours to prepare, even with several people helping, but it was totally worth it!

Hummus Recipe:

(Large portion)
2 cans of chick peas
1 can of white cannellini beans
1 red bell pepper (roasted in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper)
2 garlic cloves
1 table spoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
Juice from half a lemon
Salt and pepper

Put all ingredients in a food processor until it is smooth and creamy.


Falafel Recipe:

3 cans of chick peas
1 handful parsley
1 handful cilantro
1 onion (grounded)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 garlic cloves
Juice from half a lemon
breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Mash chickpeas or put them in a food processor. Chop herbs and add to the chickpea mixture. Add everything else besides form the bread crumbs.  Make little flat balls and roll them in the breadcrumbs. Make sure you "pack" the balls so they don't crumble when you fry them. Fry the falafel balls until they are crisp and golden.


Tzaziki

12 oz or 340g Greek yogurt
1 cucumber
1 garlic clove
Dill
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

Chop the cucumber in a blender. Mix all ingredients together. Ready to eat!

Life is Sweet

Life just looks a little sweeter from this angle (right dad?!) This weekend I'll be going to a family graduation and birthday party and decided to bring a cake. It's a carrot cake with cream cheese butter frosting and marcipan roses. I bought these rose bases (pictured), which makes them super easy to make. Just roll flat circles around the base until it looks good:-) Have a sweet friday!

Marcipan Muffins

I recently got a mold for making flowers and leaves. It's intended for fondant but I thought why not use it for marcipan; it tastes a lot better too. I added the molded flower to the top of the muffins before I put them in the oven, but unfortunately they slit off to the side as the muffins grew.. but hey at least they taste delicious:-)

Recipe

135 g sugar

150 g soft butter

3 large eggs

150 g marcipan

1/2 dl milk
150 g flour

1tsk baking powder 

Mix sugar and butter. Add one egg at a time.

Shred chunky pieces of marcipan on a grater into the dough. 

Add flour and baking powder and stir until smooth.

Bake at 400 F in approximately 20. min or until they are golden.

Opskrift 

135 g sukker

150 g blødt smør eller margarine

3 store æg

150 g marcipan

1/2 dl mælk

150 g mel

1 tsk bagepulver

Sukker og smør røres sammen.

Tilsæt 1 æg ad gangen.

Riv marcipanen groft og rør den i dejen.

Mel og bagepulver blandes og røres i dejen.

Mælken røres i – og dejen røres jævn.

Bages ved 200 grader celsius i ca. 20 minutter eller til de er gyldne.